The Mystery of Tilikum: The six ton killer
by h2o42
Summary: Cleo is promoted to doing two shows at the Marine Park. One with Ronnie, and the other with the whale Tilikum. She discovers that Tilikum has killed trainers, and it is even on video for the whole world to see. She trains with the deadly whale putting aside the risks. Will Cleo lose her life, all because she was too naive to see the truth in Tilikum? (Based on a True Event)


Hey guys, this is my first chapter of my new story. This story is based on real events. Tilikum _really_ is a killer whale who has killed trainers. The information is mostly factual, and if you have any questions about that part of the story, review or PM me, and I'll get back to you ASAP. This story is dedicated to all the animals at sea world, and their trainers. Thanks for reading, and leave a review!

"Great job, Ronnie!" I chirped to my favorite dolphin. I was doing the usual before – show training with Ronnie.

"Hey, Cleo," The dolphin show manager walked up to me.

"Hey," I replied. "What's up?" I asked, knowing he wouldn't interrupt my session with Ronnie without a reason.

"You've been promoted," He replied. "You'll be doing two shows, the one with Ronnie and with the Orcas. If you want it of course." My heart jumped, two shows! This was going to be great.

"Yes!" I hastily replied. "But I have one question."

"What?" He asked patiently.

"What are Orcas?" I blushed, at the dumbness of my question, but I honestly didn't know.

"Sorry," He laughed. "That's their "proper" name, but you may have heard of them as killer whales?"

"Ya," I replied. "I actually heard that their really friendly."

"Right," He confirmed, but had a scared look on his face.

"What is it?" I asked.

"Oh, nothing," He replied, shaking off my question.

"Alright," I replied, with suspicion. "When do I start with the killer whales?"

"Tomorrow," The dolphin show manager answered.

"One _last_ thing," It told him. "Do you know which one I'll be working with?"

He looked at me odd, wondering why I wanted to know, but I liked to think of the marine life more like people, they have names, and feelings too.

"The Orca's name is "Tilikum"," The manager informed me. "But some people call him "Tilly" for short.

"Thanks," I replied with a smile.

"Have fun tomorrow!" My boss called, walking back into him office. I grinned at Ronnie,

"How about the next trick?" I asked him.

I arrived home, to find dad and Sam sitting down.

"Hey!" I voiced to them.

"Hi, Cleo!" Sam replied. "How was work?"

"Great," I grinned, telling about my day at work. "I got a promotion!"

"That's great, Cleo," My dad told me.

"I'll be working with the Orcas," I told them.

"Well, good luck, sweetheart." He replied as I walked up to my room.

"Thanks," I called.

I plopped down onto my bed, and reached for my laptop. I wanted to research about "Tilikum" and see if I could find out any fun facts about him, to get to know him better. Once I typed in "Tilikum" I was horrified without even clicking enter. What came up was;

"Tilikum kills trainer video"

"Tilikum whale"

"Tilikum video"

I clicked on the first choice, "Tilikum kills trainer video" to see if it _really_ was the Tillikum I was working with. I clicked on the YouTube video that came up and looked in the description before I watched, to read;

A Sea World killer whale snatched a trainer from a poolside platform today and thrashed the trainer around underwater, killing her in front of a horrified audience. It marked the third time the animal had been involved in a human death.

Distraught audience members were hustled out of the stadium immediately, and part of the park was closed.

My heart beat raised, hearing that this was in fact the Tilikum I was working with, and that no one told me of this event. I finally came to watching the video, and my heart sank. I read further to find out, that sea world had re – opened the show on the trainer's funeral, not even closing it out of respect. I also found out, that Sea World had blamed it on the girl that was the whale's trainer.

The innocent black – and – white cute looking whale, took a trainer under, just like that. I finally realized something; all the animals at sea world were being held in cruel captivity, just like Denman tried to put _us _in captivity years ago. I finally understood that all these animals were angry, they had been ripped away from their open ocean home, and families, just to make a few people have a nice afternoon at the park. Ronnie was always so playful and fun, only because he was raised in captivity. He knew no other world, but these whales, they were different. I knew I had to keep my job, to support the animals, epically Ronnie, who would suffer greatly if I was gone. I sighed, and shut my laptop. I knew there wasn't much I could do to sort it out, so I just put away my PC and climbed into the warm covers of my bed. It was already 12:00, and I had school. I knew if I didn't go to bed I would suffer in the morning. I slipped on some comfy pajamas, and fell into a deep sleep.

The sun was burning into my eyes, as my alarm was buzzing. It was 6:00 a.m. and I got out of bed, much resembling a zombie. I got on denim jeans, and a purple shirt. I plaited my hair into two French twist braids, like I used to commonly a year ago. I ran downstairs after brushing my teeth, and grabbed my bag.

"Bye!" I shouted to my dad, when I left promptly at 7: 00 a.m.

"Hey, guys!" I shouted to Rikki and Bella, walking up the path to school. "What's up?"

"Not much," Rikki replied.

"Nothing," Bella told me.

"What about you?" Rikki returned the question.

"Well, actually I got a promotion at the marine park. I get to do a show with the killer whales, as well as Ronnie!" I excitedly told them, forgetting about my research the last night.

"Hey, that's great!" Bella smiled.

"Awesome," Rikki told me. "Why do they call them "killer" anyway? I mean I haven't heard of them being _killers_." I gulped, well _I _ had.

"Erm, I don't know. Maybe because they're so big?" I simply answered, thinking about Tilikum.

"Maybe so," Bella accepted.

We walked on to the lockers, and made departures.

"See you guys later, bye!" I told Rikki and Bella.

"See ya," Rikki called.

"Bye," Bella waved as she walked away.

I opened up my locker and left to class. I waited for the end of the day, wondering whether meeting Tilikum would be bitter, or sweet?

The end of the day soon approached, and I was on my way to work.

"Hey," I called to the dolphin show manager.

"Hi, Cleo," He began. "Want me to take you over to meet Tilikum?"

"Sure," I replied, my voice shaking. Even if Tilikum didn't harm me, just pulled me into the water, I would be a goner. I would become a mermaid in front of thousands of people, but I couldn't leave. It would break Ronnie's heart. I was led out to Tilikum's pool, to see the creature.

"Hi," I talked to the very sweet seeming Orca. He made a cute whale – squeak, and all my worries melted away. The trainer must've done _something_, I mean, look how cute Tilikum was! He wouldn't ever harm someone! I would never know, quite how wrong I was, how naive it was to believe that. I'd always had a soft spot for fish and marine life, but for once, I wish I would've looked back, and realized that I wasn't dealing with a cute little fish. I was dealing with an angry, 6 ton _killer_ whale. Maybe I could've turned everything around to be different than it is now.

Hey guys! That's the end of chapter 1, and do you think Cleo's meeting and training will go smoothly? Please leave a review!


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